Bhubaneswar: Former Laxmipur MLA Kailash Kulesika joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after being denied a ticket by the ruling Biju Janata Dal on Friday.
He joined the saffron party in the presence of BJP state president Manmohan Samal and actor-turned-politician Arindam Roy among others.
Upset over the denial of the ticket Kulesika alleged that the ruling BJD assured him to give Special Development Council (SDC) and Rs 1 crore after the elections, but it failed to keep its word.
It may be mentioned that the BJD re-nominated sitting MLA Prabhu Jani from the Laxmipur assembly constituency for the upcoming elections on Thursday.
The ruling party’s decision marks a departure from Kulesika’s expectations, as he had joined the ruling party in 2021 hoping to get a ticket from BJD.
Notably, Kulesika lost the 2019 assembly election on a Congress ticket to Jani by a slender margin of 229 votes.
